Posted on 12/06/2016 11:08:19 AM PST by conservative98
DEAR man on the street,
I’m writing to ask for your help.
As a female runner, I am constantly aware of my safety when I’m out on an evening run. What is behind me? Do I hear anything strange? Why is that man running towards me? What is making those bushes rustle?
And I am always home before dark.
Author Margaret Atwood said, “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them.”
You may think that’s hyperbole, but I promise you, it’s not. Every woman I know has been in a situation at least once in their life when they thought their life was actually in danger.
Can you imagine that?
When we go out running, we are putting ourselves in a vulnerable situation. We’re out of our comfort zone, and often on our own.
While the stories of rape and murder are the ones that gain the most media attention, we’re aware that it’s unlikely to happen to us. Unlikely, but always possible.
What we’re more like to encounter, though, is sexual harassment: catcalls, leering, suggestive comments and gesticulations … the list goes on.
What that harassment does is remind us that we are forever vulnerable. That we can never feel truly safe.
A recent study conducted by Runner’s World found that a whopping 43 per cent of women sometimes experience harassment on the street when they run. That’s in contrast to the 4 per cent of men who experienced the same.
The problem with harassment is that it isn’t just lighthearted banter — and it’s certainly not a compliment. (Has a call of ‘nice tits’ ever been the start of a great love story?) Harassment is all about power, and letting us know we’re in that man’s space.
Why am I telling you this? Because as a man, you fall into one of two categories:
1. You’re a genuinely nice guy who needs to be more aware of this problem
2. You’re a man who makes women feel unsafe when she’s running in public (shame on you!).
Either way, the fact that women feel unsafe when they’re out running in public is directly attributable to men. Victorian teen Masa Vukotic was murdered while out on a regular evening walk. She was in a park, in daylight, only a 500 metres from her home when she was killed. Source: Facebook
So why are all the articles and safety tips aimed at women? Why are we gathering safety groups to run with, running with personal alarms, and cutting our runs short so we’re not out after dark?
Why aren’t we asking men to fix what they broke?
I know, I know it’s #notallmen, but the thing is, it’s some men. Runner’s World reported that it was men in 94 per cent of cases where women felt threatened. And there are enough men out there contributing to this problem to make most women at least wary when they go running by themselves.
The problem is that women can’t tell the difference between those problem men and the genuinely nice guys.
If you’re one of the good guys, you probably don’t think of yourself as intimidating but your presence in certain circumstances can make a woman feel unnerved. If you don’t believe me, ask the women you know. Like many other women in Australia, Masa Vukotic regularly exercised in a local park But being alone she was vulnerable, and she was killed here at Koonung Creek Linear Park, in Doncaster, Melbourne. Picture: Chad Van Estrop
The good news is you’re in a great position to help us to feel more safe when we’re out running. Here’s what you can do:
• Don’t run directly behind us at the same pace. Either overtake or fall behind.
• When you’re overtaking us, say something like, ‘Passing on your left’. And then pass quickly.
• Don’t hang around running trails or paths wearing a hoodie and doing nothing in particular.
• Smile and/or wave as you run past us — we like feeling like we’re part of a community. But ignoring us works fine too, if that’s your thing.
• Don’t stop and chat. Mid-run is no place to strike up a new friendship.
• Keep eye contact to a minimum. Anything longer than two seconds is creepy.
• If you see a woman who could be being harassed, stop and ask if she needs help. At worst, you’re wrong and you feel a little sheepish. At best, you could stop something terrible from happening.
• Tell us if you’ve seen something threatening ahead. Are the lights under the bridge out? We love to know stuff like that.
• If a woman is wearing headphones, and you absolutely must approach her for some reason, do it from the front.
• Don’t ask us for help if your car or bike has broken down. Find someone else.
• Give us a wide berth when you’re passing and share the footpath. Even better, step off to the side. You already have global domination; you can give us a bit of concrete.
• There is no reason to gesticulate towards your crotch. Don’t even scratch yourself until you’ve passed us.
• Don’t spit anywhere near us please.
• If you have a female partner or friend who runs, ask her if she’d like some company.
As for the smaller set of men, who have contributed to this feeling of being unsafe for women everywhere, I have a special set of requests for you:
• Stop leering.
• Stop commenting on our bodies.
• Stop catcalling.
• Stop propositioning us.
• Stop groping us.
• Stop flashing us.
• Stop raping us.
• Stop murdering us.
So please, share the responsibility for making women feel safe, and make the streets a fun place to run again.
She doesn’t look like much of a runner to me.
Valid point. I'd have to see it first, I guess. Maybe take a little nibble to see if it's any good. That said, healthy kitchen exercise isn't limited to making sammiches...there's all other kinds of fun things to do if you know your way around a kitchen.
I was weary while walking to my car while taking night courses in college. Pepper spay had become popular and was paranoid of crazed paranoid women running around. Together {a word which scares some women (to-get-her)} you get a pair of paranoids. Which is really bad for the pizza.
What???? There’s a gun in that picture??????
You may think that’s hyperbole, but I promise you, it’s not. Every woman I know has been in a situation at least once in their life when they thought their life was actually in danger. Can you imagine that?”
Doesn’t this woman know that most men have felt “their life was actually in danger”? Far more men are murdered in this country than women. How clueless can this idiot be?
• Stop flashing us.
• Stop raping us.
• Stop murdering us.
Wow, she starts out sounding sort of reasonable, and then ends up THERE?
======================================================
The above No-No's do NOT apply to Hussein Obama's Muslim refugees. As part of the Muslim experience, they are allowed to rape, slit throats or even shoot the faster runners as part of the Muslim experience.
Hussein Obama, America's FIRST Muslim President, realizes some Americans will die before Americans are converted to Islam.
Hussein is good with Muslim harassement of infidels. The end is what is important, a world under Sharia Law.
“So can a german shephard”
Exactly. Oddly when I used to run with a couple of Belgians, I never had to deal with jackasses. Once I went out without them and was surprised at the instant catcalls. These were guys in cars. Never went out without the dogs again.
You lost me when your "source" was Facebook.
Did anyone mention the overwhelming tendency of females (especially the most vulnerable who don't carry and have no self defense training) to vote for liberals who have created the conditions in which crime and thug behavior has blossomed over the past four decades?
Of course.
But how do you make a woman you don’t know feel safe?
D’d’d’damn! I know what the old lady’s getting for Christmas!
Where can I buy that.
Need I say it?
If she limited to just some Mexicans being rapists and killers than there's probably be protests all across the nation by people wearing safety pins. But since she said it was all men who are likely rapists and killers it's okay.
Before Feminism, men used to be protective; and, then we humiliated them for opening the car door for us. Make up your mind girly.
I love how all these woman libbers have to keep reminding us men how delicate and fragile they are and how we are perceived as such a threat to them. As if a man never gets a shiver up his spine when he's running alone and sees a thuggish looking character with a hoodie.
Going running with a man if you feel so threatened! Or invest in a treadmill.
Also, if I stopped a jogging woman to tell her that there were lights out in the bridge ahead, she would either get offended or she would call the cops on me.
Nonsense. It is not my responsibility to make others "feel" safe...or anything else.
This was nothing but the vain ramblings of a "hot house flower."
Or embrace that the world can be unsafe, and prepare accordingly. Run with a friend. Join a running club that goes out en masse.
Stop demanding that others are responsible for your safety.
Footsteps are the last thing to worry about around here. A lumber truck going a bit fast for the road is a much greater risk.
Well said-all the kids in the family I grew up in were brought up with the understanding that we were to mind out manners when not at home on the ranch-or else. My cub was brought up the same way even though quite a few of her friends were not. I’m the only woman on a crew of men-I’m treated as an equal, and I treat my co-workers with the same respect they show me-too many women demand equality only until they have to reciprocate-then they want to be treated like women-I consider most women untrustworthy snowflakes-weak sisters-I won’t work with or for them, and most of my friends are guys...
I suppose I’m spoiled by living in a remote place-there are plenty of places to hike right outside the back gates on this road, and a lot of us hit the trails by the river and in the woods every weekend, at least. I’ve never come across an impolite, obnoxious or threatening person on the trail, people greet each other and walk together often-I carry when I hike, but that is more about animal predators than human ones.
This is just a semi-trashy redneck place-not some gated enclave-but there is no way I would hike or run in any greenbelt or other park in the city, armed or not...
Since I treasure women I understand how the world is a much more dangerous place for them. Pretend you are always walking/running in a ghetto and you get some idea.
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